David Villa Sánchez is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a striker and is the captain for New York City FC. He is nicknamed El Guaje (The Kid in Asturian) because as a youngster he regularly played football with children much older than him.

Despite sustaining a serious injury as a kid, Villa began his professional career with Sporting de Gijón. He relocated to Real Zaragoza after 2 seasons, where he made his La Liga debut, winning the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España. He joined Valencia CF in 2005 for a transfer fee of EUR12 million and became part of the Valencia team that won the Copa del Rey in the 2007– 08 season. Villa hit his La Liga goalscoring peak while at Valencia, scoring 28 league goals in the 2008– 09 season. In 2010, he transferred to FC Barcelona for EUR40 million, where he won his first La Liga and UEFA Champions League titles. He was one of the goalscorers in the 2011 final of the Champions League as Barcelona beat Manchester United, 3– 1. After a EUR5.1 million transfer, he spent the 2013– 14 season at Atlético Madrid, winning another La Liga title before leaving to play for New York City.

Villa made his worldwide debut for Spain in 2005. He has since participated in 4 significant competitions, becoming an integral member of the Spain groups that won UEFA Euro 2008 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He scored 3 goals at the 2006 World Cup, was the top scorer at Euro 2008 and earned the Silver Boot at the 2010 World Cup. He is the first Spanish player to ever reach 50 international goals and retired from internationals after the 2014 World Cup with 59 in 97 matches, making him Spain’s all-time top goalscorer in addition to the country’s leading scorer on the planet Cup, with 9 goals.

A prolific goalscorer, Villa is regarded by pundits as one of the very best forwards of his generation, and among the very best Spanish strikers of all-time. An opportunistic, flexible and well-rounded player, Villa is naturally right-footed, but a precise and powerful finisher with either foot, due to his ambidexterity, both inside and outside the area, despite his absence of height or physicality; he is also a set piece and penalty shot expert. Villa is a quick, nimble, and mobile team player, with exceptional technique and dribbling abilities, who is also known for his work-rate and smart offensive motion, along with his ability to either produce area for teammates or make assaulting encounter the location. Due to his vision and passing ability, he is also efficient in dropping deep to link up play with midfielders, and of developing chances and supplying assists for colleagues, which has allowed him to be released as a supporting forward, as an assaulting midfielder or as a winger throughout his career, in addition to his more typical role as a centre-forward.